"I don’t think Hipgnosis were Queen’s cup of tea"

Aubrey Powell, one of the founders of legendary design studio Hipgnosis, on the art that didn't make it past the musicians.

In issue 207 of Classic Rock, Aubrey "Po" Powell, co-founder of the legendary design studio Hipgnosis, talks about his archive of unseen work, art that features in a beautiful new book, Hipgnosis Portraits. Here, he talks about some of the concepts that didn't make the grade.

Paul McCartney, Tug Of War

Peter Christopherson, the third partner in Hipgnosis, came up with this image that was reminiscent of Gustav Klimt, with this lovely gold colour, but of a boy hanging himself. Paul wanted ideas for_ Tug Of War_ and Peter and Storm insisted we show him this idea. So Storm and I went to Paul’s house in St Johns Wood and were sitting in his kitchen and pulled out these ideas. He looked at this one, said “This is a very interesting idea, beautifully done, but it’s just not for me.” But I loved that he appreciated the art of it.